A biography for Gerry Cooneyhasn’t been written yet.
“You go through pain. You feel uncomfortable, uncomfortable, uncomfortable until you change. I acquired a different outlook.”
“My father was one tough man.”
“I spent a lot of time dwelling on yesterday, and it did me no good.”
“I don't overswing any more. I can throw a punch and be right in position to punch again. No more 'Hail Mary' punches, where it took me five minutes to get back in position.”
“You have got to not get hit. You could be the best puncher in the world, but if you're going to keep constantly taking punches you're going to lose your heart. Once you learn how to miss the punches and then you start to punch them, you become an all-around fighter.”
“Am I complicated? Nah, I'm interesting. I just like having a good time.”
“After every fight, I knock myself down. I start from scratch again. I say, 'I'm not as good as I thought.' It makes you work harder. It makes you push harder. It's more than money. It's more than the title. It's my pride, and it can be scary thinking about it. I could lose. It's scary.”
“Every Saturday and Sunday, when the other guys were out having a good time at the mall, I was at home working in the garden.”
“I always had the hope that Holmes and I would fight again.”
“When I hurt Norton, I got scared. I looked to the referee. But in the same sense, you're a fighter: you gotta have the killer instinct.”
“When somebody used to compliment me, I'd spend 10 minutes trying to talk them out of it.”
“The bad press came because they thought I should fight more. I couldn't get the fights because if I would sign to fight one of King's guys I would be signed to him. I chose not to do that. In hindsight, that might have been a mistake.”
“I liked to watch the expression in the fighter's face change when you connected with him. You know when you connect in the right spot. It's like a tunnel vision.”
“When we first started in Huntington Recreation with John Capobianco, we put four kids in the Golden Gloves finals. We didn't even have a ring. We trained at Stimson Junior High School. They give us the gym three nights a week. We used to box in the gym - no ring, just on the gym floor.”
“All of the sports have a safety net, but boxing is the only sport that has none. So when the fighter is through, he is through. While he was fighting his management was very excited for him, but now that he is done, that management team is moving on.”
“I've always wanted to fight. I love to fight.”
“I lost three times in my career. Losing to Holmes I could deal with, because I lost to a true champion.”
“Sometimes you get so frustrated that things aren't working out, you say, 'Let me step away for a while.' But the fire still burns.”
“I either had to concentrate on fighting, or I had to help my family. I chose my family. I love my mom; I love my family.”
“In '82, I was a little too young, I was a little inexperienced, and I was more concerned with going the distance in the fight than going out and taking Holmes out.”